Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

or

Comment: A well-cared-for item that has seen limited use but remains in great condition. The item is complete, unmarked, and undamaged, but may show some limited signs of wear. Item works perfectly. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine is undamaged.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

General Smedley Butler’s frank book shows how American war efforts were animated by big-business interests. This extraordinary argument against war by an unexpected proponent is relevant now more than ever.

Top customer reviews

It would seem the more things change, the more they stay the same. Is there anything in here that is a revalation? Not really! If someone does not know by now that government overpays for goods, or that government buys antiquated, outdated, or useless products to prop up an industry which benefits a specific politician from a specific location, that person must be living under a rock somewhere.

Although, I find his recommended solutions to be noteworthy, I personally do not think they would work exactly as expressed in today's society, but variations of his solutions could and should be implemented so that everyone shares in the responsibility; businesses should NOT profit from selling products to the government - at any time, let alone just during war time. It should be their civic duty to provide the products at, or around, cost.

Supposedly, this is the pamphlet version of a book by General Butler, but I felt it was worth the hour or so to read. I did not find out anything new other than the fact that this type of crony capitalism between industry and government has been going on for much longer than I thought. But this is the sort of thing that happens when government/politicians enrich themselves through crony deals with for-profit businesses who provide millions of dollars in donations to said politicians in exchange for extremely lucrative government contracts!

Apparently, some things are timeless in the "military-industrial racket".General Smedley Butler, the most decorated American soldier probably ever, points out in this essay some MIC moves that remind the reader of skullduggery in the Iraq War, Vietnam War, etc.Long before General Eisenhower's classic speech, General Butler sounded the alarm.

This is a really difficult read by someone who has slowly come to realize the true evils of war and who profits from it. The author is not some pacifist coward but a warrior who has realized that he and the ones he served with in battle have been had by some very evil men. We are a military family but right now the VA IS BEING EXPOSED FOR THE UNCARING GROUP THAT IT IS CONCERNING OUR VETERANS. You either have to ignore the evidence and personal experience or begin to free yourself from the war manipulators.

If you don't know about Smedley Butler, the most decorated general of his day, you should read this and his biography. He led troops in China, Cuba, S America, and WWI. He reveals why we have gone to war in the past. It seems like nothing has changed... He probably saved our democracy. The millionaires of his day did not want the New Deal and offered him money to raise an army to overthrow FDR. Instead, he went public with the plot and testified before congress. Why don't we learn about him in school?

I recommend reading this book. It only takes about 20 minutes and can be found online for free. It was written in 1935 and much of what he predicted came true and much of what he observed is still true. The analysis of profit and warfare versus who is making the real sacrifice is good. Many of his objections, while philosophically correct (in my opinion), have been taken out of the equation for the time being. He had a lot of heartburn over the draft and who got sent and how much they got paid. Now we are pretty much all volunteer and get paid relatively well. Of course I think this just makes it easier to send troops to war and he would probably have been against that result. He finishes with a 3 step method to limit wars and a great closing line, "TO HELL WITH WAR."

Although General Butler is correct in his assessment of the purposes of war, and the comments he makes in 1935 are eerily familiar in the wake of the Gulf Wars and the "War on Terrorism" today, his solutions are naive at best and do not reflect the historical realities that the world saw less than ten years later.

He says, for example, that the Germans cannot attack the US because they cannot reach our shores. This ignores the development of ICBMs, which Goddard and Von Braun were working on for the NAZIs at the time, as well as the creation of Army and Marine rapid deployment forces, equipped to establish a "beachhead" in a foreign nation and hold it for at least a month, now possessed by every world power today.

Despite this, the book is worth reading because it gives a view seldom discussed today; how war makes money for the children of the rich, while killing the children of the poor...

This simple book should be required reading for all Americans (and beyond). It is a blunt, honest, straight-forward account of what war actually is composed of and true motives, actors and reasons behind it.

It's a read you can enjoy in a single sitting. It'll probably make you uncomfortable. But, through discomfort comes growth.

Smedley Butler states his anti-war stance very simply, - because of the malfeasance implicit in the dealings of the Military-Industrial sector with Central Government. Always at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer, in terms of exorbitant pricing of supply contracts, as well as physically being the literal cannon fodder for the war effort. He says the politicians and industrialists want the ordinary soldier to risk all, at no personal risk to themselves. SB lays it bare suggesting remedial solutions that seem simplistic nowadays, but realistic for the time in the 1930s before the lessons of World War 2.

A quick easy read suited for anyone as an introductory prelude to deeper study into the military-industrial engagement with government in the conduct and causes of war.

This is a three star review of a much deeper and larger five star issue.